The
Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign
intelligence service of the
United StatesUnited States federal government, tasked
with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security
information from around the world, primarily through the use of human
intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S.
Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of
National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing
intelligence for the President and Cabinet.
Unlike the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic
security service, the CIA has no law enforcement function and is
mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering, with only limited
domestic intelligence collection. Though it is not the only U.S.
government agency specializing in HUMINT, the CIA serves as the
national manager for coordination of
HUMINTHUMINT activities across the U.S.
intelligence community. Moreover, the CIA is the only agency
authorized by law to carry out and oversee covert action at the behest
of the President.[6][7][8][9] It exerts foreign political influence
through its tactical divisions, such as the
SpecialSpecial Activities
Division.[10]
Before the
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention ActIntelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004,
the CIA Director concurrently served as the head of the Intelligence
Community; today, the CIA is organized under the Director of National
Intelligence (DNI). Despite transferring some of its powers to the
DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11
attacks. In 2013,
The Washington PostThe Washington Post reported that in fiscal year
2010, the CIA had the largest budget of all IC agencies, exceeding
previous estimates.[3][11]
The CIA has increasingly expanded its role, including covert
paramilitary operations.[3] One of its largest divisions, the
Information Operations Center (IOC), has shifted focus from
counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations.[12]

Purpose
When the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse
for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary
purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign
intelligence, and to perform covert actions.
According to its fiscal 2013 budget, the CIA has five priorities:[3]

Counterterrorism, the top priority
NonproliferationNonproliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events.
Counterintelligence
Cyber intelligence.

Organizational structure

Mike Pompeo, the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Chart showing the organization of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Main article: Organizational structure of the Central Intelligence
Agency
The CIA has an executive office and five major directorates:

The Directorate of Digital Innovation
The Directorate of Analysis
The Directorate of Operations
The Directorate of Support
The Directorate of Science and Technology

Executive Office
The
Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is appointed
by the President with
Senate confirmation and reports directly to the
Director of National IntelligenceDirector of National Intelligence (DNI); in practice, the CIA director
interfaces with the
Director of National IntelligenceDirector of National Intelligence (DNI), Congress,
and the White House, while the Deputy Director (DD/CIA) is the
internal executive of the CIA and the Chief Operating Officer
(COO/CIA), known as Executive Director until 2017, leads the
day-to-day work[13] as the third highest post of the CIA.[14] The
Deputy Director is formally appointed by the Director without Senate
confirmation,[14][15] but as the President's opinion plays a great
role in the decision,[15] the Deputy Director is generally considered
a political position, making the Chief Operating Officer the most
senior non-political position for CIA career officers.[16]
The Executive Office also supports the
U.S. militaryU.S. military by providing it
with information it gathers, receiving information from military
intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The
Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the
CIA. Each branch of the military service has its own Director.[17] The
Associate Director of military affairs, a senior military officer,
manages the relationship between the CIA and the Unified Combatant
Commands, who produce and deliver to the CIA regional/operational
intelligence and consume national intelligence produced by the
CIA.[18][19]
Directorate of Analysis

The Directorate of Analysis, through much of its history known as the
Directorate of Intelligence (DI), is tasked with helping "the
President and other policymakers make informed decisions about our
country’s national security" by looking "at all the available
information on an issue and organiz[ing] it for policymakers".[20] The
Directorate has four regional analytic groups, six groups for
transnational issues, and three that focus on policy, collection, and
staff support.[21] There is an office dedicated to Iraq; regional
analytical offices covering the
Near EastNear East and South Asia, Russia and
Europe; and the Asian Pacific, Latin American, and African office.
Directorate of Operations
Main article: National Clandestine Service
The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting foreign
intelligence (mainly from clandestine
HUMINTHUMINT sources), and for covert
action. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of human
intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U.S.
intelligence community with their own
HUMINTHUMINT operations. This
Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over
influence, philosophy and budget between the
United StatesUnited States Department
of Defense (DOD) and the CIA. In spite of this, the Department of
Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence
service, the
Defense Clandestine ServiceDefense Clandestine Service (DCS),[22] under the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA).
This Directorate is known to be organized by geographic regions and
issues, but its precise organization is classified.[23]
Directorate of Science and Technology
Main article: Directorate of Science & Technology
The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to
research, create, and manage technical collection disciplines and
equipment. Many of its innovations were transferred to other
intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the
military services.
For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance
aircraft was done in cooperation with the
United StatesUnited States Air Force. The
U-2's original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over
denied areas such as the Soviet Union.[24] It was subsequently
provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature
intelligence capabilities, and is now operated by the Air Force.
Imagery intelligenceImagery intelligence collected by the U-2 and reconnaissance
satellites was analyzed by a DS&T organization called the National
Photointerpretation Center (NPIC), which had analysts from both the
CIA and the military services. Subsequently, NPIC was transferred to
the
National Geospatial-Intelligence AgencyNational Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Directorate of Support
Main article: Directorate of Support
The Directorate of Support has organizational and administrative
functions to significant units including:

The Office of Security
The Office of Communications
The Office of Information Technology

Training
Further information: CIA University, Sherman Kent School for
Intelligence Analysis, Camp Peary, Harvey Point, and Warrenton
Training Center
The CIA established its first training facility, the Office of
Training and Education, in 1950. Following the end of the Cold War,
the CIA's training budget was slashed, which had a negative effect on
employee retention.[25][26] In response, Director of Central
Intelligence
George TenetGeorge Tenet established
CIA UniversityCIA University in 2002.[25][20]
CIA UniversityCIA University holds between 200 and 300 courses each year, training
both new hires and experienced intelligence officers, as well as CIA
support staff.[25][26] The facility works in partnership with the
National Intelligence University, and includes the Sherman Kent School
for Intelligence Analysis, the Directorate of Analysis' component of
the university.[20][27][28]
For later stage training of student operations officers, there is at
least one classified training area at Camp Peary, near Williamsburg,
Virginia. Students are selected, and their progress evaluated, in ways
derived from the OSS, published as the book Assessment of Men,
Selection of Personnel for the Office of Strategic Services.[29]
Additional mission training is conducted at Harvey Point, North
Carolina.[30]
The primary training facility for the Office of Communications is
Warrenton Training Center, located near Warrenton, Virginia. The
facility was established in 1951 and has been used by the CIA since at
least 1955.[31][32]
Budget
Main article:
United StatesUnited States intelligence budget
Details of the overall
United States intelligence budgetUnited States intelligence budget are
classified.[3] Under the
Central Intelligence Agency ActCentral Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, the
Director of Central IntelligenceDirector of Central Intelligence is the only federal government
employee who can spend "un-vouchered" government money.[33] The
government showed its 1997 budget was 26.6 billion dollars for the
fiscal year.[34] The government has disclosed a total figure for all
non-military intelligence spending since 2007; the fiscal 2013 figure
is $52.6 billion. According to the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures,
the CIA's fiscal 2013 budget is $14.7 billion, 28% of the total and
almost 50% more than the budget of the National Security Agency. CIA's
HUMINTHUMINT budget is $2.3 billion, the
SIGINTSIGINT budget is $1.7 billion, and
spending for security and logistics of CIA missions is $2.5 billion.
"Covert action programs", including a variety of activities such as
the CIA's drone fleet and anti-
Iranian nuclear programIranian nuclear program activities,
accounts for $2.6 billion.[3]
There were numerous previous attempts to obtain general information
about the budget.[35] As a result, it was revealed that CIA's annual
budget in Fiscal Year 1963 was US $550 million (inflation-adjusted US$
4.4 billion in 2018),[36] and the overall intelligence budget in FY
1997 was US $26.6 billion (inflation-adjusted US$ 40.6 billion in
2018).[37] There have been accidental disclosures; for instance, Mary
Margaret Graham, a former CIA official and deputy director of national
intelligence for collection in 2005, said that the annual intelligence
budget was $44 billion,[38] and in 1994 Congress accidentally
published a budget of $43.4 billion (in 2012 dollars) in 1994 for the
non-military National Intelligence Program, including $4.8 billion for
the CIA.[3] After the
Marshall PlanMarshall Plan was approved, appropriating $13.7
billion over five years, 5% of those funds or $685 million were made
available to the CIA.[39]
Employees
Polygraphing
Robert Baer, a
CNNCNN analyst and former CIA operative, stated that
normally a CIA employee undergoes a polygraph examination every three
to four years.[40]
Relationship with other intelligence agencies

The CIA acts as the primary US
HUMINTHUMINT and general analytic agency,
under the Director of National Intelligence, who directs or
coordinates the 16 member organizations of the United States
Intelligence Community. In addition, it obtains information from other
U.S. government intelligence agencies, commercial information sources,
and foreign intelligence services.[citation needed]
U.S. agencies
CIA employees form part of the
National Reconnaissance OfficeNational Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
workforce, originally created as a joint office of the CIA and US Air
Force to operate the spy satellites of the US military.
The
Special Collections ServiceSpecial Collections Service is a joint CIA and National Security
Agency (NSA) office that conducts clandestine electronic surveillance
in embassies and hostile territory throughout the world.
Foreign intelligence services
The role and functions of the CIA are roughly equivalent to those of
the United Kingdom's
Secret Intelligence ServiceSecret Intelligence Service (the SIS or MI6), the
Australian
Secret Intelligence ServiceSecret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the French foreign
intelligence service Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure
(DGSE), the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (Sluzhba Vneshney
Razvedki, SVR), the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), the
Indian
Research and Analysis WingResearch and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Pakistani Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, and
Israel's Mossad. While the preceding agencies both collect and analyze
information, some like the U.S. State Department's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research are purely analytical agencies.[citation
needed]
The closest links of the U.S. IC to other foreign intelligence
agencies are to Anglophone countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
and the United Kingdom. There is a special communications marking that
signals that intelligence-related messages can be shared with these
four countries.[41] An indication of the United States' close
operational cooperation is the creation of a new message distribution
label within the main
U.S. militaryU.S. military communications network.
Previously, the marking of NOFORN (i.e., No Foreign Nationals)
required the originator to specify which, if any, non-U.S. countries
could receive the information. A new handling caveat,
USA/AUS/CAN/GBR/NZL Five Eyes, used primarily on intelligence
messages, gives an easier way to indicate that the material can be
shared with Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
The task of the division called "Verbindungsstelle 61" of the German
BundesnachrichtendienstBundesnachrichtendienst is keeping contact to the CIA office in
Wiesbaden.[42] Ireland's Directorate of Military Intelligence liaises
with the CIA, although it is not a member of the Five Eyes.[43]
History

This section should include only a brief summary of History of the
Central Intelligence Agency. See:Summary style for
information on how to properly incorporate it into this article's main
text. (September 2017)

Main article: History of the Central Intelligence Agency
The
Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency was created on July 26, 1947, when
Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law. A major
impetus for the creation of the CIA was the unforeseen attack on Pearl
Harbor. In addition, towards the end of
World War IIWorld War II the U.S.
government felt the need for a group to coordinate intelligence
efforts.
Immediate predecessors
The success of the
British CommandosBritish Commandos during
World War IIWorld War II prompted U.S.
President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt to authorize the creation of an
intelligence service modeled after the British Secret Intelligence
Service (MI6), and
SpecialSpecial Operations Executive. This led to the
creation of the
Office of Strategic ServicesOffice of Strategic Services (OSS). On September 20,
1945, shortly after the end of World War II,
Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman signed an
executive order dissolving the OSS, and by October 1945 its functions
had been divided between the Departments of State and War. The
division lasted only a few months. The first public mention of the
"Central Intelligence Agency" appeared on a command-restructuring
proposal presented by
Jim ForrestalJim Forrestal and
Arthur RadfordArthur Radford to the U.S.
Senate Military Affairs Committee at the end of 1945.[44] Despite
opposition from the military establishment, the United States
Department of State and the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),[45]
Truman established the National Intelligence Authority[46] in January
1946. Its operational extension was known as the Central Intelligence
Group (CIG),[47] which was the direct predecessor of the CIA.[48]
National Security Act
Lawrence Houston, head counsel of the SSU, CIG, and, later CIA, was
principal draftsman of the National Security Act of 1947,[49][50]
which dissolved the NIA and the CIG, and established both the National
Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.[47][51] In 1949
Houston helped to draft the
Central Intelligence Agency ActCentral Intelligence Agency Act (Public
law 81-110), which authorized the agency to use confidential fiscal
and administrative procedures, and exempted it from most limitations
on the use of Federal funds. It also exempted the CIA from having to
disclose its "organization, functions, officials, titles, salaries, or
numbers of personnel employed." It created the program "PL-110" to
handle defectors and other "essential aliens" who fell outside normal
immigration procedures.[52][53]
Intelligence vs. action
At the outset of the
Korean WarKorean War the CIA still only had a few thousand
employees, a thousand of whom worked in analysis. Intelligence
primarily came from the Office of Reports and Estimates, which drew
its reports from a daily take of State Department telegrams, military
dispatches, and other public documents. The CIA still lacked its own
intelligence gathering abilities.[54] On August 21, 1950, shortly
after the invasion of South Korea, Truman announced Walter Bedell
Smith as the new Director of the CIA to correct what was seen as a
grave failure of Intelligence.[clarification needed][54]
The CIA had different demands placed on it by the different bodies
overseeing it. Truman wanted a centralized group to organize the
information that reached him,[55][56] the Department of Defense wanted
military intelligence and covert action, and the State Department
wanted to create global political change favorable to the US. Thus the
two areas of responsibility for the CIA were covert action and covert
intelligence. One of the main targets for intelligence gathering was
the Soviet Union, which had also been a priority of the CIA's
predecessors.[55][56][57]
United States Air ForceUnited States Air Force general Hoyt Vandenberg, the CIG's second
director, created the Office of
SpecialSpecial Operations (OSO), as well as
the Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE).[56] Initially the OSO was
tasked with spying and subversion overseas with a budget of $15
million, the largesse of a small number of patrons in congress.
Vandenberg's goals were much like the ones set out by his predecessor;
finding out "everything about the Soviet forces in Eastern and Central
Europe – their movements, their capabilities, and their
intentions."[58]
On June 18, 1948, the National Security Council issued Directive
10/2[59] calling for covert action against the USSR,[60] and granting
the authority to carry out covert operations against "hostile foreign
states or groups" that could, if needed, be denied by the U.S.
government. To this end, the
Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was
created inside the new CIA. The OPC was quite unique; Frank Wisner,
the head of the OPC, answered not to the CIA Director, but to the
secretaries of defense, state, and the NSC, and the OPC's actions were
a secret even from the head of the CIA. Most CIA stations had two
station chiefs, one working for the OSO, and one working for the
OPC.[61]
The early track record of the CIA was poor, with the agency unable to
provide sufficient intelligence about the Soviet takeovers of Romania
and Czechoslovakia, the Soviet blockade of Berlin, and the Soviet
atomic bomb project. In particular, the agency failed to predict the
Chinese entry into the
Korean WarKorean War with 300,000 troops.[62][63] The
famous double agent
Kim PhilbyKim Philby was the British liaison to American
Central Intelligence. Through him the CIA coordinated hundreds of
airdrops inside the iron curtain, all compromised by Philby. Arlington
Hall, the nerve center of CIA cryptanalysis, was compromised by Bill
Weisband, a Russian translator and Soviet spy.[64]
However, the CIA was successful in influencing the 1948 Italian
election in favor of the Christian Democrats.[65] The $200 million
Exchange Stabilization Fund, earmarked for the reconstruction of
Europe, was used to pay wealthy Americans of Italian heritage. Cash
was then distributed to Catholic Action, the Vatican's political arm,
and directly to Italian politicians. This tactic of using its large
fund to purchase elections was frequently repeated in the subsequent
years.[66]
Korean War
At the beginning of the Korean War, CIA officer Hans Tofte claimed to
have turned a thousand North Korean expatriates into a guerrilla force
tasked with infiltration, guerrilla warfare, and pilot rescue.[67] In
1952 the CIA sent 1,500 more expatriate agents north.
SeoulSeoul station
chief Albert Haney would openly celebrate the capabilities of those
agents, and the information they sent.[67] In September 1952 Haney was
replaced by John Limond Hart, a Europe veteran with a vivid memory for
bitter experiences of misinformation.[67] Hart was suspicious of the
parade of successes reported by Tofte and Haney and launched an
investigation which determined that the entirety of the information
supplied by the Korean sources was false or misleading.[68] After the
war, internal reviews by the CIA would corroborate Hart's findings.
The CIA's
SeoulSeoul station had 200 officers, but not a single speaker of
Korean.[68] Hart reported to Washington that
SeoulSeoul station was
hopeless, and could not be salvaged. Loftus Becker, Deputy Director of
Intelligence, was sent personally to tell Hart that the CIA had to
keep the station open to save face. Becker returned to Washington,
pronounced the situation to be "hopeless", and that, after touring the
CIA's Far East operations, the CIA's ability to gather intelligence in
the far east was "almost negligible".[68] He then resigned. Air Force
Colonel James Kallis stated that CIA director
Allen DullesAllen Dulles continued
to praise the CIA's Korean force, despite knowing that they were under
enemy control.[69] When China entered the war in 1950, the CIA
attempted a number of subversive operations in the country, all of
which failed due to the presence of double agents. Millions of dollars
were spent in these efforts.[70] These included a team of young CIA
officers airdropped into China who were ambushed, and CIA funds being
used to set up a global heroin empire in Burma's Golden Triangle
following a betrayal by another double agent.[70]
1953 Iranian coup d'état
Main article: 1953 Iranian coup d'état
In 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh, a member of the National Front, was
elected Iranian prime-minister.[71] As prime minister, he nationalized
the
Anglo-Iranian Oil CompanyAnglo-Iranian Oil Company which his predecessor had supported. The
nationalization of the British-funded Iranian oil industry, including
the largest oil refinery in the world, was disastrous for Mossadeq. A
British naval embargo closed the British oil facilities, which Iran
had no skilled workers to operate. In 1952 Mosaddegh resisted the
royal refusal to approve his Minister of War, and resigned in protest.
The National Front took to the streets in protest. Fearing a loss of
control, the military pulled its troops back five days later, and the
Shah gave in to Mosaddegh's demands. Mosaddegh quickly replaced
military leaders loyal to the Shah with those loyal to him, giving him
personal control over the military. Given six months of emergency
powers, Mosaddegh unilaterally passed legislation. When that six
months expired, his powers were extended for another year. In 1953
Mossadeq dismissed parliament and assumed dictatorial powers. This
power grab triggered the Shah to exercise his constitutional right to
dismiss Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh launched a military coup as the Shah fled
the country. As was typical of CIA operations, CIA interventions were
preceded by radio announcements on July 7, 1953, made by the CIA's
intended victim by way of operational leaks.[72] On August 19, a CIA
paid mob led by Ayatollah
Ruhollah KhomeiniRuhollah Khomeini would spark what a US
embassy officer called "an almost spontaneous revolution"[73] but
Mosaddegh was protected by his new inner military circle, and the CIA
had been unable to gain influence within the Iranian military. Their
chosen man, former general Fazlollah Zahedi, had no troops to call
on.[72] General McClure, commander of the American military assistance
advisory group, would get his second star buying the loyalty of the
Iranian officers he was training. An attack on his house would force
Mossadegh to flee. He surrendered the next day, and his coup came to
an end.[74] The end result would be a 60/40 oil profit split in favor
of Iran (possibly similar to agreements with
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia and
Venezuela).[71] [clarification needed]
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
Main article: 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
The return of the Shah to power, and the impression, cultivated by
Allen Dulles, that an effective CIA had been able to guide that nation
to friendly and stable relations with the west triggered planning for
Operation PBSUCCESS, a plan to overthrow Guatemalan President Jacobo
Arbenz.[75] The plan was exposed in major newspapers before it
happened after a CIA agent left plans for the coup in his Guatemala
City hotel room.[76]
The
Guatemalan RevolutionGuatemalan Revolution of 1944–54 overthrew the U.S. backed
dictator
Jorge UbicoJorge Ubico and brought a democratically elected government
to power. The government began an ambitious agrarian reform program
attempting to grant land to millions of landless peasants. This
program threatened the land holdings of the United Fruit Company, who
lobbied for a coup by portraying these reforms as
communist.[77][78][79][80]
On June 18, 1954,
Carlos Castillo ArmasCarlos Castillo Armas led 480 CIA-trained men across
the border from
HondurasHonduras into Guatemala. The weapons had also come
from the CIA.[81] The CIA also mounted a psychological campaign to
convince the Guatemalan people and government that Armas' victory was
a fait accompli, the largest part of which was a radio broadcast
entitled "The Voice of Liberation" which announced that Guatemalan
exiles led by Castillo Armas were shortly about to liberate the
country.[81] On June 25, a CIA plane bombed
GuatemalaGuatemala City, destroying
the government's main oil reserves. Árbenz ordered the army to
distribute weapons to local peasants and workers.[82] The army
refused, forcing Jacobo Árbenz's resignation on June 27, 1954.
Árbenz handed over power to Colonel Carlos Enrique Diaz.[82] The CIA
then orchestrated a series of power transfers that ended with the
confirmation of Castillo Armas as president in July 1954.[82] Armas
was the first in a series of military dictators that would rule the
country, triggering the brutal
Guatemalan Civil WarGuatemalan Civil War in which some
200,000 people were killed, mostly by the U.S.-backed
military.[77][83][84][85][86][87]
Syria
Main article: CIA activities in Syria
In 1949, Colonel
Adib ShishakliAdib Shishakli rose to power in Syria in a CIA-backed
coup. Four years later, he would be overthrown by the military,
Ba'athists, and communists. The CIA and MI6 started funding right wing
members of the military, but suffered a large setback in the aftermath
of the Suez Crisis. CIA Agent Rocky Stone, who had played a minor role
in the Iranian Revolution, was working at the
DamascusDamascus embassy as a
diplomat, but was actually the station chief. Syrian officers on the
CIA dole quickly appeared on television stating that they had received
money from "corrupt and sinister Americans" "in an attempt to
overthrow the legitimate government of Syria."[88] Syrian forces
surrounded the embassy and rousted Agent Stone, who confessed and
subsequently made history as the first American diplomat expelled from
an Arab nation. This strengthened ties between Syria and Egypt,
helping establish the United Arab Republic, and poisoning the well for
the US for the foreseeable future.[88]
Indonesia
Main article: CIA activities in Indonesia
The charismatic leader of
IndonesiaIndonesia was President Sukarno. His
declaration of neutrality in the
Cold WarCold War put the suspicions of the
CIA on him. After
SukarnoSukarno hosted Bandung Conference, promoting the
Non-Aligned Movement, the Eisenhower
White HouseWhite House responded with NSC
5518 authorizing "all feasible covert means" to move
IndonesiaIndonesia into
the Western sphere.[89]
The US had no clear policy on Indonesia. Ike sent his special
assistant for security operations, F. M. Dearborn Jr., to Jakarta. His
report that there was great instability, and that the US lacked stable
allies, reinforced the domino theory.
IndonesiaIndonesia suffered from what he
described as "subversion by democracy".[90] The CIA decided to attempt
another military coup in Indonesia, where the Indonesian military was
trained by the US, had a strong professional relationship with the US
military, had a pro-American officer corps that strongly supported
their government, and a strong belief in civilian control of the
military, instilled partly by its close association with the US
military.[91]
On September 25, 1957, Eisenhower ordered the CIA to start a
revolution in
IndonesiaIndonesia with the goal of regime change. Three days
later, Blitz, a Soviet-controlled weekly in India,[92] reported that
the US was plotting to overthrow Sukarno. The story was picked up by
the media in Indonesia. One of the first parts of the operation was an
11,500 ton US navy ship landing at Sumatra, delivering weapons for as
many as 8,000 potential revolutionaries.[93][not in citation given]
The CIA described Agent Al Pope's bombing and strafing of
IndonesiaIndonesia in
a CIA B-26 to the President as attacks by "dissident planes". Pope's
B-26 was shot down over Ambon,
IndonesiaIndonesia on May 18, 1958, and he
bailed out. When he was captured, the Indonesian military found his
personnel records, after action reports, and his membership card for
the officer's club at Clark Field. On March 9, Foster Dulles, the
Secretary of State, and brother of DCI Allen Dulles, made a public
statement calling for a revolt against communist despotism under
Sukarno. Three days later, the CIA reported to the
White HouseWhite House that
the Indonesian Army's actions against CIA-instigated revolution was
suppressing communism.[94]
After Indonesia, Eisenhower displayed mistrust of both the CIA and its
Director, Allen Dulles. Dulles too displayed mistrust of the CIA
itself. Abbot Smith, a CIA analyst who later became chief of the
Office of National Estimates, said, "We had constructed for ourselves
a picture of the USSR, and whatever happened had to be made to fit
into this picture. Intelligence estimators can hardly commit a more
abominable sin." Something reflected in the intelligence failure in
Indonesia. On December 16, Eisenhower received a report from his
intelligence board of consultants that said the agency was "incapable
of making objective appraisals of its own intelligence information as
well as its own operations."[95]
Democratic republic of the Congo
Main article: CIA activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In the election of Patrice Lumumba, and his acceptance of Soviet
support the CIA saw another possible Cuba. This view swayed the White
House. Ike ordered that Lumumba be "eliminated". The CIA delivered a
quarter of a million dollars to Joseph Mobutu, their favored Congolese
political figure. Mobutu delivered Lumumba to the Belgians, the former
colonial masters of Congo, who executed him in short order.[96]
Gary Powers U-2 shootdown
Main article: 1960 U-2 incident

Suspended from the ceiling of the glass enclosed atrium: three models
of the U-2, Lockheed A-12, and D-21 drone. These models are exact
replicas at one-sixth scale of the real planes. All three had
photographic capabilities. The U-2 was one of the first espionage
planes developed by the CIA. The A-12 set unheralded flight records.
The D-21 drone was one of the first unmanned aircraft ever built.
Lockheed Martin CorporationLockheed Martin Corporation donated all three models to the CIA.

After the Bomber Gap came the Missile Gap. Eisenhower wanted to use
the U-2 to disprove the Missile Gap, but he had banned U-2 overflights
of the USSR after meeting Secretary
KhrushchevKhrushchev at Camp David. Another
reason the President objected to the use of the U-2 was that, in the
nuclear age, the intelligence he needed most was on their intentions,
without which, the US would face a paralysis of intelligence. He was
particularly worried that U-2 flights could be seen as preparations
for first strike attacks. He had high hopes for an upcoming meeting
with
KhrushchevKhrushchev in Paris. Eisenhower finally gave into CIA pressure to
authorize a 16-day window for flights, which was extended an
additional six days because of poor weather. On May 1, 1960, the USSR
shot down a U-2 flying over the Soviet territory. To Eisenhower, the
ensuing coverup destroyed his perceived honesty, and his hope of
leaving a legacy of thawing relations with Khrushchev. It would also
mark the beginning of a long downward slide in the credibility of the
Office of the President of the United States. Eisenhower later said
that the U-2 coverup was the greatest regret of his
Presidency.[97]:160
Dominican Republic
The human rights abuses of Generalissimo
Rafael TrujilloRafael Trujillo had a history
of more than three decades, but in August 1960 the United States
severed diplomatic relations. The CIA's
SpecialSpecial group had decided to
arm Dominicans in hopes of an assassination. The CIA had dispersed
three rifles, and three .38 revolvers, but things paused as Kennedy
assumed office. An order approved by Kennedy resulted in the dispersal
of four machine guns. Trujillo died from gunshot wounds two weeks
later. In the aftermath, Robert Kennedy wrote that the CIA had
succeeded where it had failed many times in the past, but in the face
of that success, it was caught flatfooted, having failed to plan what
to do next.[98]
Bay of Pigs
Main article:
Bay of PigsBay of Pigs invasion
The CIA welcomed
Fidel CastroFidel Castro on his visit to DC, and gave him a
face-to-face briefing. The CIA hoped that Castro would bring about a
friendly democratic government, and planned to curry his favor with
money and guns. On December 11, 1959, a memo reached the DCI's desk
recommending Castro's "elimination". Dulles replaced the word
"elimination" with "removal", and set the wheels in motion. By
mid-August 1960, Dick Bissell would seek, with the blessing of the
CIA, to hire the Mafia to assassinate Castro.[99]
The
Bay of Pigs InvasionBay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba
undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group
Brigade 2506Brigade 2506 on
April 17, 1961. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded
by the CIA,
Brigade 2506Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic
Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly
communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the
invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban
Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister
Fidel Castro. US President
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower was concerned at the
direction Castro's government was taking, and in March 1960,
Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA to plan Castro's
overthrow. The CIA proceeded to organize the operation with the aid of
various Cuban counter-revolutionary forces, training
Brigade 2506Brigade 2506 in
Guatemala. Over 1,400 paramilitaries set out for
CubaCuba by boat on April
13. Two days later on April 15, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers
attacked Cuban air fields. On the night of April 16, the main invasion
landed in the Bay of Pigs, but by April 20, the invaders finally
surrendered. The failed invasion strengthened the position of Castro's
leadership as well as his ties with the USSR. This led eventually to
the events of the
Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The invasion was a
major embarrassment for US foreign policy. US President John F.
Kennedy ordered a number of internal investigations across Latin
America.[citation needed]
The Taylor Board was commissioned to determine what went wrong in
Cuba. The Board came to the same conclusion that the Jan '61
President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities
had concluded, and many other reviews prior, and to come, that Covert
Action had to be completely isolated from intelligence and analysis.
The Inspector General of the CIA investigated the Bay of Pigs. His
conclusion was that there was a need to drastically improve the
organization and management of the CIA. The
SpecialSpecial Group (Later
renamed the 303 committee) was convened in an oversight role.[citation
needed]
Early Cold War, 1953–1966

The CIA was involved in anti-Communist activities in Burma, Guatemala,
and Laos.[100] There have been suggestions that the Soviet attempt to
put missiles into
CubaCuba came, indirectly, when they realized how badly
they had been compromised by a U.S.-UK defector in place, Oleg
Penkovsky.[101] One of the biggest operations ever undertaken by the
CIA was directed at
ZaïreZaïre in support of general-turned-dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko.[102]
Indochina, Tibet and the
Vietnam WarVietnam War (1954–1975)
Main articles: CIA Tibetan program, CIA activities in Vietnam, Vietnam
War, Phoenix Program, Operation Barrel Roll, CIA activities in Laos,
and Laotian Civil War
The OSS Patti mission arrived in
VietnamVietnam near the end of World War II,
and had significant interaction with the leaders of many Vietnamese
factions, including Ho Chi Minh.[103]
The
CIA Tibetan program consists of political plots, propaganda
distribution, as well as paramilitary and intelligence gathering based
on U.S. commitments made to the
Dalai LamaDalai Lama in 1951 and 1956.[104]
During the period of U.S. combat involvement in the
VietnamVietnam War, there
was considerable argument about progress among the Department of
Defense under Robert McNamara, the CIA, and, to some extent, the
intelligence staff of Military Assistance Command Vietnam.[105]
Sometime between 1959 and 1961 the CIA started Project Tiger, a
program of dropping South Vietnamese agents into North
VietnamVietnam to
gather intelligence. These were failures; the Deputy Chief for Project
Tiger, Captain Do Van Tien, admitted that he was an agent for
Hanoi.[106]
Johnson
In the face of the failure of Project Tiger, the Pentagon wanted CIA
paramilitary forces to participate in their Op Plan 64A, this resulted
in the CIA's foreign paramilitaries being put under the command of the
DOD, a move seen as a slippery slope inside the CIA, a slide from
covert action towards militarization.[107]
A CIA analyst's assessment of
VietnamVietnam was that the US was "becoming
progressively divorced from reality... [and] proceeding with far more
courage than wisdom".[108]
Nixon
In 1971, the NSA and CIA were engaged in domestic spying. The DOD was
eavesdropping on Kissinger. The White House, and
Camp DavidCamp David were wired
for sound. Nixon and Kissinger were eavesdropping on their aides, as
well as reporters. Famously, Nixon's Plumbers had in their number many
former CIA agents, including Howard Hunt, Jim McCord, and Eugenio
Martinez. On July 7, 1971, John Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic policy
chief, told DCI Cushman, Nixon's hatchet-man in the CIA, to let
Cushman "know that [Hunt] was in fact doing some things for the
President... you should consider he has pretty much carte
blanche"[109] Importantly, this included a camera, disguises, a voice
altering device, and ID papers furnished by the CIA, as well as the
CIA's participation developing film from the burglary Hunt staged on
the office of
Pentagon PapersPentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg's
psychologist.[citation needed]
On June 17, Nixon's Plumbers were caught burglarizing the DNC offices
in the Watergate. On June 23, DCI Helms was ordered by the White House
to wave the FBI off using national security as a pretext. The new DCI,
Walters, another Nixon hack, called the acting director of the FBI and
told him to drop the investigation as ordered.[110] On June 26,
Nixon's counsel
John DeanJohn Dean ordered DCI Walters to pay the plumbers
untraceable hush money. The CIA was the only part of the government
that had the power to make off the book payments, but it could only be
done on the orders of the CI, or, if he was out of the country, the
DCI. The Acting Director of the FBI started breaking ranks. He
demanded the CIA produce a signed document attesting to the national
security threat of the investigation. Jim McCord's lawyer contacted
the CIA informing them that McCord had been offered a Presidential
pardon if he fingered the CIA, testifying that the break-in had been
an operation of the CIA. Nixon had long been frustrated by what he saw
as a liberal infection inside the CIA, and had been trying for years
to tear the CIA out by its roots. McCord wrote "If [DCI] Helms goes
(takes the fall) and the Watergate operation is laid at the CIA's
feet, where it does not belong, every tree in the forest will fall. It
will be a scorched desert."[111]
On November 13, after Nixon's landslide re-election, Nixon told
Kissinger "[I intend] to ruin the Foreign Service. I mean ruin it –
the old Foreign Service – and to build a new one." He had similar
designs for the CIA, and intended to replace Helms with James
Schlesinger.[111] Nixon had told Helms that he was on the way out, and
promised that Helms could stay on until his 60th birthday, the
mandatory retirement age. On February 2, Nixon broke that promise,
carrying through with his intention to "remove the deadwood" from the
CIA. "Get rid of the clowns" was his order to the incoming CI.
Kissinger had been running the CIA since the beginning of Nixon's
presidency, but Nixon impressed on Schlesinger that he must appear to
congress to be in charge, averting their suspicion of Kissinger's
involvement.[112] Nixon also hoped that Schlesinger could push through
broader changes in the intelligence community that he had been working
towards for years, the creation of a Director of National
Intelligence, and spinning off the covert action part of the CIA into
a separate organ. Before Helms would leave office, he would destroy
every tape he had secretly made of meetings in his office, and many of
the papers on Project MKUltra. In Schlesinger's 17-week tenure, he
would fire more than 1,500 employees. As Watergate threw the spotlight
on the CIA, Schlesinger, who had been kept in the dark about the CIA's
involvement, decided he needed to know what skeletons were in the
closet. He issued a memo to every CIA employee directing them to
disclose to him any CIA activity they knew of past or present that
could fall outside the scope of the CIA's charter.[citation needed]
This became the Family Jewels. It included information linking the CIA
to the assassination of foreign leaders, the illegal surveillance of
some 7,000 U.S. citizens involved in the antiwar movement (Operation
CHAOS), the CIA had also experimented on U.S. and Canadian citizens
without their knowledge, secretly giving them LSD (among other things)
and observing the results.[113] This prompted Congress to create the
Church CommitteeChurch Committee in the Senate, and the Pike Committee in the House.
President
Gerald FordGerald Ford created the Rockefeller Commission,[113] and
issued an executive order prohibiting the assassination of foreign
leaders. DCI Colby leaked the papers to the press, later he stated
that he believed that providing Congress with this information was the
correct thing to do, and ultimately in the CIA's own interests.[114]
Congressional Investigations
Acting Attorney General
Laurence SilbermanLaurence Silberman learned of the existence of
the Family Jewels, he issued a subpoena for them, prompting eight
congressional investigations on the domestic spying activities of the
CIA. Bill Colby's short tenure as DCI would end with the Halloween
Massacre. His replacement was George H.W. Bush. At the time, the DOD
had control of 80% of the intelligence budget.[115] Communication and
coordination between the CIA and the DOD would suffer greatly under
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The CIA's budget for hiring
clandestine officers had been squeezed out by the paramilitary
operations in south-east Asia, and hiring was further strained by the
government's poor popularity. This left the agency bloated with middle
management, and anemic in younger officers. With employee training
taking five years, the agency's only hope would be on the trickle of
new officers coming to fruition years in the future. The CIA would see
another setback as communists would take Angola. William J. Casey, a
member of Ford's Intelligence Advisory Board, would press Bush to
allow a team from outside the CIA to produce Soviet military estimates
as a "Team B". Bush gave the OK. The "B" team was composed of hawks.
Their estimates were the highest that could be justified, and they
painted a picture of a growing Soviet military when the Soviet
military was actually shrinking. Many of their reports found their way
to the press. As a result of the investigations, Congressional
oversight of the CIA eventually evolved into a select intelligence
committee in the House, and Senate supervising covert actions
authorized by the President.[citation needed]
Chad
Main article: CIA activities in Chad
Chad's neighbor
LibyaLibya was a major source of weaponry to communist
rebel forces. The CIA seized the opportunity to arm and finance Chad's
Prime Minister,
Hissène HabréHissène Habré after he created a breakaway
government in Western Sudan,[116] even giving him Stinger
missiles.[117]
Afghanistan
See also:
CIA activities in Afghanistan and Operation Cyclone
Further information: Allegations of CIA assistance to Osama bin Laden
In Afghanistan, the CIA funneled $40 billion worth of weapons,[118]
which included over two thousand
FIM-92 StingerFIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air
missiles,[119] to Pakistani
Inter-Services IntelligenceInter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which
funneled them to almost 100,000 Afghan resistance fighters, notably
the Mujahideen, and foreign "Afghan Arabs" from forty Muslim
countries.[120][121]
Iran/Contra
Under President Jimmy Carter, the CIA was conducting covertly funded
pro-American opposition against the Sandinista. In March 1981, Reagan
told Congress that the CIA would protect
El SalvadorEl Salvador by preventing the
shipment of Nicaraguan arms into the country to arm Communist rebels.
This was a ruse. The CIA was actually arming and training Nicaraguans
ContrasContras in
HondurasHonduras in hopes that they could depose the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua.[122] Through William J. Casey's tenure as DCI little of
what he said in the National Security Planning Group, or to President
Reagan was supported by the intelligence branch of the CIA, so Casey
formed the Central American Task Force, staffed with yes men from
Covert Action.[122] On December 21, 1982, Congress passed a law
restricting the CIA to its stated mission, restricting the flow of
arms from
NicaraguaNicaragua to El Salvador, prohibiting the use of funds to
oust the Sandinistas. Reagan testified before Congress, assuring them
that the CIA was not trying to topple the Nicaraguan
government.[citation needed]
Lebanon
The CIA's prime source in Lebanon was Bashir Gemayel, a member of the
Christian Maronite sect. The CIA was blinded by the uprising against
the Maronite minority. Israel invaded Lebanon, and, along with the
CIA, propped up Gemayel. This got Gemayel's assurance that Americans
would be protected in Lebanon. 13 days later he was assassinated. Imad
Mughniyah, a
HezbollahHezbollah assassin would target Americans in retaliation
for the Israeli invasion, the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and the US
Marines of the Multi-National Force for their role in opposing the PLO
in Lebanon. On April 18, 1983, a 2,000 lb car bomb exploded in
the lobby of the American embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people
including 17 Americans, and 7 CIA officers, including Robert Ames, one
of the CIA's best Middle East experts. America's fortunes in Lebanon
would only suffer more as America's poorly-directed retaliation for
the bombing was interpreted by many as support for the Christian
Maronite minority. On October 23, 1983, two bombs (1983 Beirut
Bombing) were set off in Beirut, including a 10 ton bomb at a US
military barracks that killed 242 people. Both attacks are believed to
have been planned by Iran by way of Mughniyah.[citation needed]
The Embassy bombing had taken the life of the CIA's
BeirutBeirut Station
Chief, Ken Haas. Bill Buckley was sent in to replace him. Eighteen
days after the US Marines left Lebanon, Buckley was kidnapped. On
March 7, 1984, Jeremy Levin,
CNNCNN Bureau Chief in
BeirutBeirut was kidnapped.
Twelve more Americans would be kidnapped in
BeirutBeirut during the Reagan
Administration. Manucher Ghorbanifar, a former
SavakSavak agent was an
information seller, and the subject of a rare CIA burn notice for his
track record of misinformation. He reached out to the agency offering
a back channel to Iran, suggesting a trade of missiles that would be
lucrative to the intermediaries.[123]
Pakistan
Main article: CIA activities in Pakistan
CIA activities ostensibly carried out by the CIA within Pakistan. It
has been alleged by such authors as
Ahmed RashidAhmed Rashid that the CIA and ISI)
have been waging a clandestine war. The Afghan Taliban—with whom the
United StatesUnited States is officially in conflict—is headquartered in
Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and according to some
reports is largely funded by the ISI. The Pakistani government denies
this.
PolandPoland 1980–89
See also: Poland–
United StatesUnited States relations
Unlike the Carter Administration, the Reagan Administration supported
the Solidarity movement in Poland, and—based on CIA
intelligence—waged a public relations campaign to deter what the
Carter administration felt was "an imminent move by large Soviet
military forces into Poland." Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, a senior
officer on the Polish General Staff was secretly sending reports to
the CIA.[124] The CIA transferred around $2 million yearly in cash to
Solidarity, which suggests that $10 million total is a reasonable
estimate for the five-year total. There were no direct links between
the CIA and Solidarnosc, and all money was channeled through third
parties.[125] CIA officers were barred from meeting Solidarity
leaders, and the CIA's contacts with Solidarnosc activists were weaker
than those of the AFL-CIO, which raised 300 thousand dollars from its
members, which were used to provide material and cash directly to
Soldarity, with no control of Solidarity's use of it. The U.S.
Congress authorized the National Endowment for Democracy to promote
democracy, and the NED allocated $10 million to Solidarity.[126] When
the Polish government launched a crackdown of its own in December
1981, however, Solidarity was not alerted. Potential explanations for
this vary; some believe that the CIA was caught off guard, while
others suggest that American policy-makers viewed an internal
crackdown as preferable to an "inevitable Soviet intervention."[127]
CIA support for Solidarity included money, equipment and training,
which was coordinated by
SpecialSpecial Operations CIA division.[128] Henry
Hyde, U.S. House intelligence committee member, stated that USA
provided "supplies and technical assistance in terms of clandestine
newspapers, broadcasting, propaganda, money, organizational help and
advice".[129] Michael Reisman from Yale Law School named operations in
PolandPoland as one of the covert actions of CIA during Cold War.[130]
Initial funds for covert actions by CIA were $2 million, but soon
after authorization were increased and by 1985 CIA successfully
infiltrated Poland[131] Rainer Thiel in Nested Games of External
Democracy Promotion: The
United StatesUnited States and the Polish Liberalization
1980–1989 mentions how covert operations by CIA and spy games among
others allowed USA to proceed with successful regime change.[132]
Operation Desert Storm
Main article: Gulf War
During the Iran-
IraqIraq war, the CIA had backed both sides. The CIA had
maintained a network of spies in Iran, but in 1989 a CIA mistake
compromised every agent they had in there, and the CIA had no agents
in Iraq. In the weeks before the
Invasion of KuwaitInvasion of Kuwait the CIA downplayed
the military buildup. During the war CIA estimates of Iraqi abilities
and intentions flip-flopped and were rarely accurate. In one
particular case, the DOD had asked the CIA to identify military
targets to bomb. One target the CIA identified was an underground
shelter. The CIA didn't know that it was a civilian bomb shelter. In a
rare instance the CIA correctly determined that the coalition forces
efforts were coming up short in their efforts to destroy SCUD
missiles. Congress took away the CIA's role in interpreting
spy-satellite photos, putting the CIA's satellite intelligence
operations under the auspices of the military. The CIA created its
office of military affairs, which operated as "second-echelon support
for the pentagon... answering... questions from military men [like]
'how wide is this road?'"[133]
Fall of the USSR
Gorbachev's announcement of the unilateral reduction of 500,000 Soviet
troops took the CIA by surprise. Moreover, Doug MacEachin, the CIA's
Chief of Soviet analysis said that even if the CIA had told the
President, the NSC, and Congress about the cuts beforehand, it would
have been ignored. "We never would have been able to publish it."[134]
All the CIA numbers on the USSR's economy were wrong. Too often the
CIA relied on people inexperienced with that which they were supposed
to be the expert on. Bob Gates had preceded Doug MacEachin as Chief of
Soviet analysis, and he had never visited Russia. Few officers, even
those stationed in country spoke the language of the people they were
spying on. And the CIA had no capacity to send agents to respond to
developing situations. The CIA analysis of Russia during the entire
cold war was either driven by ideology, or by politics. William J.
Crowe, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the CIA
"talked about the
Soviet UnionSoviet Union as if they weren't reading the
newspapers, much less developed clandestine intelligence."[135]
President Clinton
On January 25, 1993,
Mir Qazi opened fire at the CIA headquarters in
Langley, Virginia, killing two agents and wounding three others. On
February 26,
Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda terrorists led by
Ramzi YousefRamzi Yousef bombed the
parking garage below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New
York City, killing six people and injuring 1,402 others.
During the Bosnian War, the CIA ignored signs within and without of
the Srebrenica massacre. Two weeks after news reports of the
slaughter, the CIA sent a U-2 to photograph it; a week later the CIA
completed its report on the matter. During Operation Allied Force, the
CIA had incorrectly provided the coordinates of the Chinese Embassy as
a Yugoslav military target resulting in its bombing.[citation needed]
In France, the CIA had orders for economic intelligence; a female CIA
agent revealed her connections to the CIA to the French. Dick Holm,
ParisParis Station Chief, was expelled.[citation needed] In Guatemala, the
CIA produced the Murphy Memo, based on audio recordings made by bugs
planted by Guatemalan intelligence in the bedroom of Ambassador
Marilyn McAfee. In the recording, Ambassador McAfee verbally entreated
"Murphy". The CIA circulated a memo in the highest Washington circles
accusing Ambassador McAfee of having an extramarital lesbian affair
with her secretary, Carol Murphy. There was no affair. Ambassador
McAfee was calling to Murphy, her poodle.[136]
Harold James NicholsonHarold James Nicholson would burn several serving officers and three
years of trainees before he was caught spying for Russia. In 1997 the
House would pen another report, which said that CIA officers know
little about the language or politics of the people they spy on; the
conclusion was that the CIA lacked the "depth, breadth, and expertise
to monitor political, military, and economic developments
worldwide."[137] Russ Travers said in the CIA in-house journal that in
five years "intelligence failure is inevitable".[138] In 1997 the
CIA's new director
George TenetGeorge Tenet would promise a new working agency by
2002. The CIA's surprise at India's detonation of an atom bomb was a
failure at almost every level. After the 1998 embassy bombings by Al
Qaeda, the CIA offered two targets to be hit in retaliation. One of
them was the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, where traces of chemical
weapon precursors had been detected. In the aftermath it was concluded
that "the decision to target al Shifa continues a tradition of
operating on inadequate intelligence about Sudan." It triggered the
CIA to make "substantial and sweeping changes" to prevent "a
catastrophic systemic intelligence failure."[139] Between 1991 and
1998 the CIA lost 3,000 employees.[citation needed]
Aldrich Ames
See also: Aldrich Ames
Between 1985 and 1986 the CIA lost every spy it had in Eastern Europe.
The details of the investigation into the cause were obscured from the
new Director, and the investigation had little success, and has been
widely criticized. In June 1987, Major Florentino Aspillaga Lombard,
the chief of Cuban Intelligence in
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia drove into Vienna,
and walked into the American Embassy to defect. He revealed that every
single Cuban spy on the CIA payroll was a double agent, pretending to
work for the CIA, but secretly still being loyal to Castro. On
February 21, 1994, FBI agents pulled
Aldrich AmesAldrich Ames out of his
Jaguar.[140] In the investigation that ensued, the CIA discovered that
many of the sources for its most important analyses of the USSR were
based on Soviet disinformation fed to the CIA by controlled agents. On
top of that, it was discovered that, in some cases, the CIA suspected
at the time that the sources were compromised, but the information was
sent up the chain as genuine.[141][142]
Osama bin Laden
Agency files show that it is believed
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden was funding the
Afghan rebels against the USSR in the 1980s.[143] In 1991, bin Laden
returned to his native
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia protesting the presence of troops,
and Operation Desert Storm. He was expelled from the country. In 1996
the CIA created a team to hunt bin Laden. They were trading
information with the Sudanese until, on the word of a source that
would later be found to be a fabricator, the CIA closed its Sudan
station later that year. In 1998 bin Laden would declare war on
America, and, on August 7, strike in Tanzania and Nairobi. On October
12, 2000,
Al QaedaAl Qaeda bombed the USS Cole. In 1947 when the CIA was
founded, there were 200 agents in the Clandestine Service. In 2001, of
the 17,000 employees in the CIA, there were 1,000 in the Clandestine
Service. Of that 1,000 few would accept hardship postings. In the
first days of George W. Bush's presidency,
Al QaedaAl Qaeda threats were
ubiquitous in daily Presidential CIA briefings, but it may have become
a case of the boy who cries wolf. The agency's predictions were dire,
but carried little weight, and the attentions of the President and his
defense staff were elsewhere. The CIA arranged the arrests of
suspected
Al QaedaAl Qaeda members through cooperation with foreign agencies,
but the CIA could not definitively say what effect these arrests had
had, and it could not gain hard intelligence from those captured. The
President had asked the CIA if
Al QaedaAl Qaeda could plan attacks in the US.
On August 6, Bush received a daily briefing with the headline, not
based on current, solid intelligence, "
Al QaedaAl Qaeda determined to strike
inside the US." The US had been hunting bin Laden since 1996 and had
had several opportunities, but neither Clinton, nor Bush had wanted to
risk their skin taking an active role in a murky assassination plot,
and the perfect opportunity had never materialized for a trigger shy
DCI that would have given him the reassurances he needed to take the
plunge. That day,
Richard A. ClarkeRichard A. Clarke sent National Security Advisor
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice warning of the risks, and decrying the inaction of
the CIA.[144]
Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda and the "Global War on Terrorism"
Further information: CIA transnational anti-terrorism activities,
Human rightsHuman rights violations by the CIA, and Senate Intelligence Committee
report on CIA torture

The CIA prepared a series of leaflets announcing bounties for those
who turned in or denounced individual suspected of association with
the
TalibanTaliban or al Qaeda.

The CIA had long been dealing with terrorism originating from abroad,
and in 1986 had set up a
Counterterrorist Center to deal specifically
with the problem. At first confronted with secular terrorism, the
agency found Islamist terrorism looming increasingly large on its
scope.[citation needed]
In January 1996, the CIA created an experimental "virtual station,"
the Bin Laden Issue Station, under the Counterterrorist Center, to
track bin Laden's developing activities. Al-Fadl, who defected to the
CIA in spring 1996, began to provide the Station with a new image of
the
Al QaedaAl Qaeda leader: he was not only a terrorist financier, but a
terrorist organizer, too. FBI
SpecialSpecial Agent Dan Coleman (who together
with his partner Jack Cloonan had been "seconded" to the bin Laden
Station) called him Qaeda's "Rosetta Stone".[145]
In 1999, CIA chief
George TenetGeorge Tenet launched a grand "Plan" to deal with
al-Qaeda. The Counterterrorist Center, its new chief
Cofer Black and
the center's bin Laden unit were the Plan's developers and executors.
Once it was prepared Tenet assigned CIA intelligence chief Charles E.
Allen to set up a "Qaeda cell" to oversee its tactical execution.[146]
In 2000, the CIA and USAF jointly ran a series of flights over
AfghanistanAfghanistan with a small remote-controlled reconnaissance drone, the
Predator; they obtained probable photos of bin Laden.
Cofer Black and
others became advocates of arming the Predator with missiles to try to
assassinate bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. After the
Cabinet-level Principals Committee meeting on terrorism of September
4, 2001, the CIA resumed reconnaissance flights, the drones now being
weapons-capable.[citation needed]

On September 11, 2001, 19
Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda members hijacked four passenger
jets within the
Northeastern United StatesNortheastern United States in a series of coordinated
terrorist attacks. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the
World Trade Center in New York City, the third into the Pentagon in
Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth inadvertently into a field
near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks cost the lives of 2,996
people (including the 19 hijackers), caused the destruction of the
Twin Towers, and damaged the western side of the Pentagon. Soon after
9/11,
The New York TimesThe New York Times released a story stating that the CIA's New
York field office was destroyed in the wake of the attacks. According
to unnamed CIA sources, while first responders, military personnel and
volunteers were conducting rescue efforts at the World Trade Center
site, a special CIA team was searching the rubble for both digital and
paper copies of classified documents. This was done according to
well-rehearsed document recovery procedures put in place after the
Iranian takeover of the
United StatesUnited States Embassy in Tehran in 1979. While
it was not confirmed whether the agency was able to retrieve the
classified information, it is known that all agents present that day
fled the building safely.[citation needed]
While the CIA insists that those who conducted the attacks on 9/11
were not aware that the agency was operating at 7 World Trade Center
under the guise of another (unidentified) federal agency, this center
was the headquarters for many notable criminal terrorism
investigations. Though the New York field offices' main
responsibilities were to monitor and recruit foreign officials
stationed at the United Nations, the field office also handled the
investigations of the August 1998 bombings of
United StatesUnited States Embassies
in East Africa and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.[147]
Despite the fact that the CIA's New York branch may have been damaged
by the 9/11 attacks and they had to loan office space from the US
Mission to the
United NationsUnited Nations and other federal agencies, there was an
upside for the CIA.[147] In the months immediately following 9/11,
there was a huge increase in the number of applications for CIA
positions. According to CIA representatives that spoke with The New
York Times, pre-9/11 the agency received approximately 500 to 600
applications a week, in the months following 9/11 the agency received
that number daily.[148]
The intelligence community as a whole, and especially the CIA, were
involved in presidential planning immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
In his address to the nation at 8:30pm on September 11, 2001, George
W. Bush mentioned the intelligence community: "The search is underway
for those who are behind these evil acts, I've directed the full
resource of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find
those responsible and bring them to justice."[149]
The involvement of the CIA in the newly coined "War on Terror" was
further increased on September 15, 2001. During a meeting at Camp
David
George W. BushGeorge W. Bush agreed to adopt a plan proposed by CIA director
George Tenet. This plan consisted of conducting a covert war in which
CIA paramilitary officers would cooperate with anti-
TalibanTaliban guerillas
inside Afghanistan. They would later be joined by small special
operations forces teams which would call in precision airstrikes on
TalibanTaliban and
Al QaedaAl Qaeda fighters. This plan was codified on September 16,
2001 with Bush's signature of an official Memorandum of Notification
that allowed the plan to proceed.[150]

On November 25–27, 2001,
TalibanTaliban prisoners revolted at the Qala
Jangi prison west of Mazar-e-Sharif. Though several days of struggle
occurred between the
TalibanTaliban prisoners and the Northern Alliance
members present, the prisoners did gain the upper hand and obtain
North Alliance weapons. At some point during this period Johnny "Mike"
Spann, a CIA officer sent to question the prisoners, was beaten to
death. He became the first American to die in combat in the war in
Afghanistan.[150]
After 9/11, the CIA came under criticism for not having done enough to
prevent the attacks. Tenet rejected the criticism, citing the agency's
planning efforts especially over the preceding two years. He also
considered that the CIA's efforts had put the agency in a position to
respond rapidly and effectively to the attacks, both in the "Afghan
sanctuary" and in "ninety-two countries around the world".[151][152]
The new strategy was called the "Worldwide Attack Matrix".
Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American U.S. citizen and al-Qaeda member,
was killed on September 30, 2011, by an air attack carried out by the
Joint
SpecialSpecial Operations Command. After several days of surveillance
of Awlaki by the Central Intelligence Agency, armed drones took off
from a new, secret American base in the Arabian Peninsula, crossed
into northern Yemen, and fired a number of Hellfire missiles at
al-Awlaki's vehicle. Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American al-Qaeda member
and editor of the jihadist Inspire magazine, also reportedly died in
the attack. The combined CIA/JSOC drone strike was the first in Yemen
since 2002 – there have been others by the military's Special
Operations forces – and was part of an effort by the spy agency to
duplicate in Yemen the covert war which has been running in
AfghanistanAfghanistan and Pakistan.[153][154]
Use of vaccination programs
The agency attracted widespread criticism after it used a doctor in
PakistanPakistan to set up a vaccination program in
AbbottabadAbbottabad in 2011 to
obtain DNA samples from the occupants of a compound where it was
suspected bin Laden was living.[155]
Failures in intelligence analysis
A major criticism is failure to forestall the September 11 attacks.
The
9/11 Commission Report9/11 Commission Report identifies failures in the IC as a whole.
One problem, for example, was the FBI failing to "connect the dots" by
sharing information among its decentralized field offices.
The report concluded that former DCI
George TenetGeorge Tenet failed to adequately
prepare the agency to deal with the danger posed by al-Qaeda prior to
the attacks of September 11, 2001.[156] The report was finished in
June 2005 and was partially released to the public in an agreement
with Congress, over the objections of current DCI General Michael
Hayden. Hayden said its publication would "consume time and attention
revisiting ground that is already well plowed."[157] Tenet disagreed
with the report's conclusions, citing his planning efforts vis-à-vis
al-Qaeda, particularly from 1999.[158]
Abuses of CIA authority, 1970s–1990s
Conditions worsened in the mid-1970s, around the time of Watergate. A
dominant feature of political life during that period were the
attempts of Congress to assert oversight of the U.S. Presidency and
the executive branch of the U.S. government. Revelations about past
CIA activities, such as assassinations and attempted assassinations of
foreign leaders (most notably
Fidel CastroFidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo) and
illegal domestic spying on U.S. citizens, provided the opportunities
to increase Congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence
operations.[113]
CIA involvement in Contra cocaine traffickingCIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking in
Nicaragua[159][160] and complicity in the actions of the death squads
in
El SalvadorEl Salvador and
HondurasHonduras also came to light.[161][162]

Hastening the CIA's fall from grace were the burglary of the Watergate
headquarters of the Democratic Party by former CIA officers, and
President Richard Nixon's subsequent attempt to use the CIA to impede
the FBI's investigation of the burglary. In the famous "smoking gun"
recording that led to President Nixon's resignation, Nixon ordered his
chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, to tell the CIA that further
investigation of Watergate would "open the whole can of worms" about
the
Bay of Pigs InvasionBay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.[163] In this way Nixon and Haldemann
ensured that the CIA's No. 1 and No. 2 ranking officials, Richard
Helms and Vernon Walters, communicated to FBI Director L. Patrick Gray
that the FBI should not follow the money trail from the burglars to
the Committee to Re-elect the President, as it would uncover CIA
informants in Mexico. The FBI initially agreed to this due to a
long-standing agreement between the FBI and CIA not to uncover each
other's sources of information, though within a couple of weeks the
FBI demanded this request in writing, and when no such formal request
came, the FBI resumed its investigation into the money trail.
Nonetheless, when the smoking gun tapes were made public, damage to
the public's perception of CIA's top officials, and thus to the CIA as
a whole, could not be avoided.[164]

Repercussions from the
Iran-Contra affairIran-Contra affair arms smuggling scandal
included the creation of the
Intelligence Authorization ActIntelligence Authorization Act in 1991.
It defined covert operations as secret missions in geopolitical areas
where the U.S. is neither openly nor apparently engaged. This also
required an authorizing chain of command, including an official,
presidential finding report and the informing of the House and Senate
Intelligence Committees, which, in emergencies, requires only "timely
notification."
IraqIraq War
Main article: CIA activities in Iraq
Further information: Plame affair
72 days after the 9/11 attacks President Bush told his Secretary of
Defense to update the US plan for an invasion of Iraq, but not to tell
anyone. SecDef Rumsfeld asked Bush if he could bring DCI Tenet into
the loop, to which Bush agreed.[165]
Feelers the CIA had put out to
IraqIraq in the form of eight of their best
officers in Kurdish territory in Northern
IraqIraq hit a goldmine,
unprecedented in the famously closed, almost fascist Hussein
government. By December 2002 the CIA had close to a dozen good
networks in Iraq[165]:242 and would advance so far that they would
penetrate Iraq's SSO, and even tap the encrypted communications of the
Deputy Prime Minister, even the bodyguard of Hussein's son became an
agent. As time passed, the CIA would become more and more frantic
about the possibility of their networks being compromised, "rolled
up". To the CIA, the Invasion had to occur before the end of February
2003 if their sources inside Hussein's government were to survive. The
rollup would happen as predicted, 37 CIA sources recognized by their
Thuraya satellite telephones provided for them by the CIA.[165]:337

The case
Colin PowellColin Powell presented before the
United NationsUnited Nations (purportedly
proving an Iraqi WMD program) was wishful thinking. DDCI John E.
McLaughlin was part of a long discussion in the CIA about
equivocation. McLaughlin, who would make, among others, the "slam
dunk" presentation to the President, "felt that they had to dare to be
wrong to be clearer in their judgements".[165]:197 The Al Qaeda
connection, for instance, was from a single source, extracted through
torture, and was later denied. Curveball was a known liar, and the
sole source for the mobile chemical weapons factories.[167] A
postmortem of the intelligence failures in the lead up to
IraqIraq led by
former DDCI Richard Kerr would conclude that the CIA had been a
casualty of the cold war, wiped out in a way "analogous to the effect
of the meteor strikes on the dinosaurs."[168]
The opening days of the Invasion of
IraqIraq would see successes and
defeats for the CIA. With its
IraqIraq networks compromised, and its
strategic and tactical information shallow, and often wrong, the
intelligence side of the invasion itself would be a black eye for the
agency. The CIA would see some success with its "Scorpion"
paramilitary teams composed of CIA
Special Activities DivisionSpecial Activities Division agents,
along with friendly Iraqi partisans. CIA SAD officers would also help
the US 10th
SpecialSpecial Forces.[165][169][170] The occupation of Iraq
would be a low point in the history of the CIA. At the largest CIA
station in the world agents would rotate through 1–3 month tours. In
IraqIraq almost 500 transient agents would be trapped inside the Green
Zone while
IraqIraq Station Chiefs would rotate with only a little less
frequency.[171]
2004, DNI takes over CIA top-level functions
The
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention ActIntelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 created
the office of the
Director of National IntelligenceDirector of National Intelligence (DNI), who took
over some of the government and intelligence community (IC)-wide
functions that had previously been the CIA's. The DNI manages the
United States Intelligence CommunityUnited States Intelligence Community and in so doing it manages the
intelligence cycle. Among the functions that moved to the DNI were the
preparation of estimates reflecting the consolidated opinion of the 16
IC agencies, and preparation of briefings for the president. On July
30, 2008, President Bush issued Executive Order 13470[172] amending
Executive Order 12333Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the role of the DNI.[173]
Previously, the
Director of Central IntelligenceDirector of Central Intelligence (DCI) oversaw the
Intelligence Community, serving as the president's principal
intelligence advisor, additionally serving as head of the CIA. The
DCI's title now is "Director of the Central Intelligence Agency"
(D/CIA), serving as head of the CIA.
Currently, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence.
Prior to the establishment of the DNI, the CIA reported to the
President, with informational briefings to congressional committees.
The National Security Advisor is a permanent member of the National
Security Council, responsible for briefing the President with
pertinent information collected by all U.S. intelligence agencies,
including the National Security Agency, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, etc. All 16 Intelligence Community agencies are under
the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.
Operation Neptune Spear
See also: Death of Osama bin Laden
On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden
was killed earlier that day by "a small team of Americans" operating
in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during a CIA operation.[174][175] The raid
was executed from a CIA forward base in
AfghanistanAfghanistan by elements of the
U.S. Navy's
Naval Special Warfare Development GroupNaval Special Warfare Development Group and CIA
paramilitary operatives.[176]
It resulted in the acquisition of extensive intelligence on the future
attack plans of al-Qaeda.[177][178][179]
The operation was a result of years of intelligence work that included
the CIA's capture and interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammad (KSM),
which led to the identity of a courier of bin Laden's,[180][181][182]
the tracking of the courier to the compound by
SpecialSpecial Activities
Division paramilitary operatives and the establishing of a CIA safe
house to provide critical tactical intelligence for the
operation.[183][184][185]
Syrian Civil War
Main article: CIA activities in Syria
Under the aegis of operation
Timber SycamoreTimber Sycamore and other clandestine
activities, CIA operatives and U.S. special operations troops have
trained and armed nearly 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of
$1 billion a year.[186] The CIA has been sending weapons to
anti-government rebels in Syria since at least 2012.[187] These
weapons have been reportedly falling into hands of extremists, such as
al-Nusra Front and ISIL.[188][189][190] Around February 2017, the CIA
was instructed to halt military aid to Syrian rebels (Free Syrian Army
or FSA), which also included training, ammunition, guided missiles,
and salaries. Sources state that the hold on aid was not related to
the transitions from Obama's administration to Trump's, but rather due
to issues faced by the FSA. Based on responses by rebel officials,
they believe that the aid freeze is related to concerns that weapons
and funds will fall into the hands of ISIL. Based on information
obtained by Reuters, five FSA groups have confirmed that they received
funding and military support from an source called "MOM operations
room." Several countries besides the U.S. had also contributed to the
funding of the FSA. These countries include Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi
Arabia.[191] On April 6, 2017, Al-Jazeera reported that funding to the
FSA was partially restored. Based on information provided by two FSA
sources, the new military operation room will receive its funds from
the coalition "Friends of Syria". The coalition consists of members
from the U.S, Turkey, Western Europe, and Gulf states, which
previously supported the military operation known as MOM.[192]
It was reported in July 2017 that President
Donald TrumpDonald Trump had ordered a
"phasing out" of the CIA's support for anti-Assad rebels.[193]
Reorganization
On March 6, 2015, the office of the D/CIA issued an unclassified
edition of a statement by the Director, titled "Our Agency's Blueprint
for the Future", as a press release for public consumption. The press
release announced sweeping plans for the reorganization and reform of
the CIA, which the Director believes will bring the CIA more in line
with the agency doctrine called the 'Strategic Direction'. Among the
principal changes disclosed include the establishment of a new
directorate, the Directorate of Digital Innovation, which is
responsible for designing and crafting the digital technology to be
used by the agency, to keep the CIA always ahead of its enemies. The
Directorate of Digital Innovation will also train CIA staff in the use
of this technology, to prepare the CIA for the future, and it will
also use the technological revolution to deal with cyber-terrorism and
other perceived threats. The new directorate will be the chief
cyber-espionage arm of the agency going forward.[194]
Other changes which were announced include the formation of a Talent
Development Center of Excellence, the enhancement and expansion of the
CIA UniversityCIA University and the creation of the office of the Chancellor to
head the
CIA UniversityCIA University in order to consolidate and unify recruitment
and training efforts. The office of the Executive Director will be
empowered and expanded and the secretarial offices serving the
Executive Director will be streamlined. The restructuring of the
entire Agency is to be revamped according to a new model whereby
governance is modelled after the structure and hierarchy of
corporations, said to increase the efficiency of workflow and to
greatly enable the Executive Director to manage day-to-day activity.
As well, another stated intention was to establish 'Mission Centers',
each one to deal with a specific geographic region of the world, which
will bring the full collaboration and joint efforts of the five
Directorates together under one roof. While the Directorate heads will
still retain ultimate authority over their respective Directorate, the
Mission Centers will be led by an Assistant Director who will work
with the capabilities and talents of all five Directorates on mission
specific goals for the parts of the world which they are given
responsibility for.[194]
The unclassified version of the document ends with the announcement
that the
National Clandestine ServiceNational Clandestine Service (NCS) will be reverting to its
original Directorate name, the Directorate of Operations. The
Directorate of Intelligence is also being renamed, it will now be the
Directorate of Analysis.[194]
Drones
A new policy introduced by President Barack Obama removed the
authority of the CIA to launch drone attacks and allowed these attacks
only under Department of Defense command. This change was reversed by
President Donald Trump, who authorized CIA drone strikes on suspected
terrorists.[195]
Open Source Intelligence
Further information:
Foreign Broadcast Information Service and Open
Source Center
Until the 2004 reorganization of the intelligence community, one of
the "services of common concern" that the CIA provided was Open Source
Intelligence from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS).[196] FBIS, which had absorbed the Joint Publication Research
Service, a military organization that translated documents,[197] moved
into the
National Open Source Enterprise under the Director of
National Intelligence.
During the Reagan administration, Michael Sekora (assigned to the
DIA), worked with agencies across the intelligence community,
including the CIA, to develop and deploy a technology-based
competitive strategy system called Project Socrates. Project Socrates
was designed to utilize open source intelligence gathering almost
exclusively. The technology-focused Socrates system supported such
programs as the
Strategic Defense InitiativeStrategic Defense Initiative in addition to private
sector projects.[198][199]
As part of its mandate to gather intelligence, the CIA is looking
increasingly online for information, and has become a major consumer
of social media. "We're looking at YouTube, which carries some unique
and honest-to-goodness intelligence," said Doug Naquin, director of
the DNI
Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters. "We're looking
at chat rooms and things that didn't exist five years ago, and trying
to stay ahead."[200] CIA launched a
TwitterTwitter account in June 2014.[201]
Outsourcing and privatization
See also: Intelligence Outsourcing
Many of the duties and functions of Intelligence Community activities,
not the CIA alone, are being outsourced and privatized. Mike
McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, was about to
publicize an investigation report of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence
agencies, as required by Congress.[202] However, this report was then
classified.[203][204] Hillhouse speculates that this report includes
requirements for the CIA to report:[203][205]

different standards for government employees and contractors;
contractors providing similar services to government workers;
analysis of costs of contractors vs. employees;
an assessment of the appropriateness of outsourced activities;
an estimate of the number of contracts and contractors;
comparison of compensation for contractors and government employees;
attrition analysis of government employees;
descriptions of positions to be converted back to the employee model;
an evaluation of accountability mechanisms;
an evaluation of procedures for "conducting oversight of contractors
to ensure identification and prosecution of criminal violations,
financial waste, fraud, or other abuses committed by contractors or
contract personnel"; and
an "identification of best practices of accountability mechanisms
within service contracts."

According to investigative journalist Tim Shorrock:

...what we have today with the intelligence business is something far
more systemic: senior officials leaving their national security and
counterterrorism jobs for positions where they are basically doing the
same jobs they once held at the CIA, the NSA and other
agencies — but for double or triple the salary, and for profit.
It's a privatization of the highest order, in which our collective
memory and experience in intelligence — our crown jewels of
spying, so to speak — are owned by corporate America. Yet,
there is essentially no government oversight of this private sector at
the heart of our intelligence empire. And the lines between public and
private have become so blurred as to be nonexistent.[206][207]

Part of the contracting problem comes from Congressional restrictions
on the number of employees in the IC. According to Hillhouse, this
resulted in 70% of the de facto workforce of the CIA's National
Clandestine Service being made up of contractors. "After years of
contributing to the increasing reliance upon contractors, Congress is
now providing a framework for the conversion of contractors into
federal government employees—more or less."[205]
As with most government agencies, building equipment often is
contracted. The
National Reconnaissance OfficeNational Reconnaissance Office (NRO), responsible for
the development and operation of airborne and spaceborne sensors, long
was a joint operation of the CIA and the
United StatesUnited States Department of
Defense. NRO had been significantly involved in the design of such
sensors, but the NRO, then under DCI authority, contracted more of the
design that had been their tradition, and to a contractor without
extensive reconnaissance experience, Boeing. The next-generation
satellite
Future Imagery ArchitectureFuture Imagery Architecture project "how does heaven look",
which missed objectives after $4 billion in cost overruns, was the
result of this contract.[208][209]
Some of the cost problems associated with intelligence come from one
agency, or even a group within an agency, not accepting the
compartmented security practices for individual projects, requiring
expensive duplication.[210]
Controversies
See also: 1953 Iranian coup d'état, 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, CIA
activities in Indonesia, and Operation Condor

Supplemental material used in Maxwell Taylor's report on the Bay of
Pigs invasion.

The CIA: a forgotten history, by William Blum[211] and Legacy of
Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner[212] have accused the CIA
of various covert actions, and human rights abuses. The CIA has
responded to the claims made in Weiner's book,[213] and Jeffrey T.
Richelson of the National Security Archive has also been critical of
it.[214] Intelligence expert David Wise faulted Weiner for portraying
Allen DullesAllen Dulles as "a doddering old man" rather than the "shrewd
professional spy" he knew and for refusing "to concede that the
agency's leaders may have acted from patriotic motives or that the CIA
ever did anything right," but concluded: "
Legacy of Ashes succeeds as
both journalism and history, and it is must reading for anyone
interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War
II."[215] In 2017, the CIA faced heat over WikiLeaks. They released a
statement saying they conduct missions to aggressively collect
intelligence, but denied the authenticity of the cables released by
Wikileaks.[216]
Domestic wiretapping
In 1969, at the height of the antiwar movement in the US, CIA Director
Helms received a message from
Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger ordering him to spy on
the leaders of the groups requesting a moratorium on Vietnam. "Since
1962, three successive presidents had ordered the director of central
intelligence to spy on Americans."[217]
Extraordinary rendition
Further information: Extraordinary rendition, Black site, and
Rendition aircraft

The US Senate Report on CIA Detention Interrogation Program that
details the use of torture during CIA detention and interrogation.

Extraordinary renditionExtraordinary rendition is the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer
of a person from one country to another.[218]
The term "torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe
situations in which the CIA[219][220][221][222] and other US agencies
have transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to employ
torture, whether they meant to enable torture or not. It has been
claimed, though, that torture has been employed with the knowledge or
acquiescence of US agencies (a transfer of anyone to anywhere for the
purpose of torture is a violation of US law), although Condoleezza
Rice (then the
United StatesUnited States Secretary of State) stated that:

Whilst the Obama administration has tried to distance itself from some
of the harshest counterterrorism techniques, it has also said that at
least some forms of renditions will continue.[224] The administration
continued to allow rendition only "to a country with jurisdiction over
that individual (for prosecution of that individual)" when there is a
diplomatic assurance "that they will not be treated
inhumanely."[225][226]
The US program has also prompted several official investigations in
Europe into alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state
transfers involving
Council of EuropeCouncil of Europe member states. A June 2006
report from the
Council of EuropeCouncil of Europe estimated 100 people had been
kidnapped by the CIA on EU territory (with the cooperation of Council
of Europe members), and rendered to other countries, often after
having transited through secret detention centres ("black sites") used
by the CIA, some located in Europe. According to the separate European
Parliament report of February 2007, the CIA has conducted 1,245
flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face
torture, in violation of article 3 of the
United NationsUnited Nations Convention
Against Torture.[227]
Following the
September 11 attacksSeptember 11 attacks the United States, in particular
the CIA, has been accused of rendering hundreds of people suspected by
the government of being terrorists—or of aiding and abetting
terrorist organisations—to third-party states such as Egypt, Jordan,
Morocco, and Uzbekistan. Such "ghost detainees" are kept outside
judicial oversight, often without ever entering US territory, and may
or may not ultimately be devolved to the custody of the United
States.[228][229]
On October 4, 2001, a secret arrangement was made in Brussels, by all
members of NATO. Lord George Robertson, British defence secretary and
later NATO's secretary-general, would later explain that
NATONATO members
agree to provide "blanket overflight clearances for the United States
and other allies' aircraft for military flights related to operations
against terrorism."[230]
Security failures

Critics assert that funding the Afghan mujahideen (Operation Cyclone)
played a role in causing the September 11 attacks.

On December 30, 2009, a suicide attack occurred in the Forward
Operating Base Chapman attack in the province of Khost, Afghanistan.
Seven CIA officers, including the chief of the base, were killed and
six others seriously wounded in the attack.[231]
CounterintelligenceCounterintelligence failures
Perhaps the most disruptive period involving counterintelligence was
James Jesus Angleton's search for a mole,[232] based on the statements
of a Soviet defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn. A second defector, Yuri
Nosenko, challenged Golitsyn's claims, with the two calling one
another Soviet double agents.[233] Many CIA officers fell under
career-ending suspicion; the details of the relative truths and
untruths from Nosenko and Golitsyn may never be released, or, in fact,
may not be fully understood. The accusations also crossed the Atlantic
to the British intelligence services, who also were damaged by
molehunts.[234]
Edward Lee Howard, David Henry Barnett, both field operations officers
sold secrets to Russia, and William Kampiles, a low-level worker in
the CIA 24-hour Operations Center. Kampiles sold the Soviets the
detailed operational manual for the
KH-11KH-11 reconnaissance
satellite.[235]
Human rightsHuman rights concerns
Main article:
Human rightsHuman rights violations by the CIA
See also: Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture

The CIA has been called into question for, at times, using torture,
funding and training of groups and organizations that would later
participate in killing of civilians and other non-combatants and would
try or succeed in overthrowing democratically elected governments,
human experimentation, and targeted killings and assassinations. The
CIA has also been accused of a lack of financial and whistleblower
controls which has led to waste and fraud.[236]
The Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the non-profit
organization Open Society Foundations reviewed public records into the
medical professions alleging complicity in the abuse of prisoners
suspected of terrorism who were held in U.S. custody during the years
after 9/11."[237][238] The reports found that health professionals
"Aided cruel and degrading interrogations; Helped devise and implement
practices designed to maximize disorientation and anxiety so as to
make detainees more malleable for interrogation; and Participated in
the application of excruciatingly painful methods of force-feeding of
mentally competent detainees carrying out hunger strikes" are not all
that surprising.[237] Medical professionals were sometimes used at
black sites to monitor detainee health.[239] Whether or not the
physicians were compelled is an open question.
Other human rights issues that are controversial include the case of
Edward Snowden.[240][241][242] However, the significance of human
right does not fall into this case regarding whether Snowden received
his fair trial or not. Rather, the human rights associated with the
Snowden leaks are regarding the types of document Snowden released.
Snowden released a significant amount of information on the U.S.
government's surveillance program of its citizens[243][244][245][246]
to
The Washington PostThe Washington Post as well as foreign news reporters.
Particularly, "between on or about June 5, 2013, and June 9,
2013, classified information was published on the internet and in
print by multiple newspapers, including
The Washington PostThe Washington Post and The
Guardian. The articles and internet postings by The Washington Post
and
The GuardianThe Guardian included classified documents that were marked TOP
SECRET.
The Washington PostThe Washington Post and
The GuardianThe Guardian later revealed that
SNOWDEN was the principal source for the classified information on or
about June 9, 2013, in a videotaped interview with The Guardian,
admitted that he was the person who illegally provided those documents
to reporters. Evidence indicates that SNOWDEN had access to the
classified documents in question; accessed those documents; and,
subsequently, provided those documents to media outlets without
authorization and in violation of U.S. law."[240]
Furthermore, the leaks included documents at many levels of the
National Security AgencyNational Security Agency (NSA) electronic surveillance activities.
"The Snowden leaks have generated broad public debate over issues of
security, privacy, and legality inherent in the NSA's surveillance of
communications by American citizens. The records include: White House
and ODNI efforts to explain, justify, and defend the programs;
Correspondence between outside critics and executive branch officials;
Fact sheets and white papers distributed (and sometimes later
withdrawn) by the government; Key laws and court decisions (both
Supreme Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court); Documents
on the Total Information Awareness (later Terrorist Information
Awareness, or TIA) program, an earlier proposal for massive data
collection Manuals on how to exploit the Internet for
intelligence."[247]
External investigations and document releases
Main article: Official reports by the U.S. Government on the CIA
Several investigations (e.g., the Church Committee, Rockefeller
Commission, Pike Committee, etc.) have been conducted about the CIA,
and many documents have been declassified.[248]
Influencing public opinion and law enforcement
See also: CIA influence on public opinion, CIA and the media, CIA in
fiction, Robertson Panel, and Operation Mockingbird
The CIA sometimes finds itself in conflict with other parts of the
government when there is disagreement over the legality of specific
covert programs. There is always the risk that one part of the
government may make the covert operations of another part of the
government public.[249]
Drug trafficking
Main articles: CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities
and Allegations of CIA drug trafficking
Two offices of CIA Directorate of Analysis have analytical
responsibilities in this area. The Office of Transnational Issues[250]
applies unique functional expertise to assess existing and emerging
threats to U.S. national security and provides the most senior U.S.
policymakers, military planners, and law enforcement with analysis,
warning, and crisis support.
CIA Crime and Narcotics Center[251] researches information on
international narcotics trafficking and organized crime for
policymakers and the law enforcement community. Since CIA has no
domestic police authority, it sends its analytic information to the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement organizations, such as the
Drug Enforcement AdministrationDrug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Office of Foreign Assets
Control of the
United States Department of the TreasuryUnited States Department of the Treasury (OFAC).
Another part of CIA, the Directorate of Operations, collects human
intelligence (HUMINT) in these areas.
Research by Dr. Alfred W. McCoy, Gary Webb, and others has pointed to
CIA involvement in narcotics trafficking across the globe, although
the CIA officially denies such allegations.[252][247] During the Cold
War, when numerous soldiers participated in transport of Southeast
Asian heroin to the
United StatesUnited States by the airline Air America,[citation
needed] the CIA's role in such traffic was reportedly rationalized as
"recapture" of related profits to prevent possible enemy control of
such assets.
Alleged lying to Congress
Former Speaker of the
United States House of RepresentativesUnited States House of Representatives Nancy
Pelosi has stated that the CIA repeatedly misled Congress since 2001
about waterboarding and other torture, though Pelosi admitted to being
told about the programs.[253][254] Six members of Congress have
claimed that Director of the CIA
Leon PanettaLeon Panetta admitted that over a
period of several years since 2001 the CIA deceived Congress,
including affirmatively lying to Congress.[255] Some congressmen
believe that these "lies" to Congress are similar to CIA lies to
Congress from earlier periods.[256]
Covert programs hidden from Congress
On July 10, 2009, House Intelligence subcommittee Chairwoman
Representative
Jan SchakowskyJan Schakowsky (D, IL) announced the termination of an
unnamed CIA covert program described as "very serious" in nature which
had been kept secret from Congress for eight years.[257]

It's not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got
buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and
administration not to tell the Congress.

Jan Schakowsky, Chairwoman, U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence
Subcommittee

CIA Director Panetta had ordered an internal investigation to
determine why Congress had not been informed about the covert program.
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Representative Silvestre
Reyes announced that he is considering an investigation into alleged
CIA violations of the National Security Act, which requires with
limited exception that Congress be informed of covert activities.
Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Schakowsky
indicated that she would forward a request for congressional
investigation to
HPSCIHPSCI Chairman Silvestre Reyes.

"Director Panetta did brief us two weeks ago—I believe it was on the
24th of June—... and, as had been reported, did tell us that he was
told that the vice president had ordered that the program not be
briefed to the Congress."

As mandated by
Title 50 of the United States Code Chapter 15,
Subchapter III, when it becomes necessary to limit access to covert
operations findings that could affect vital interests of the U.S., as
soon as possible the President must report at a minimum to the Gang of
Eight (the leaders of each of the two parties from both the Senate and
House of Representatives, and the chairs and ranking members of both
the Senate Committee and House Committee for intelligence).[258] The
House is expected to support the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Bill
including a provision that would require the President to inform more
than 40 members of Congress about covert operations. The Obama
administration threatened to veto the final version of a bill that
included such a provision.[259][260] On July 16, 2008, the fiscal 2009
Intelligence Authorization Bill was approved by House majority
containing stipulations that 75% of money sought for covert actions
would be held until all members of the House Intelligence panel were
briefed on sensitive covert actions. Under the George W. Bush
administration, senior advisers to the President issued a statement
indicating that if a bill containing this provision reached the
President, they would recommend that he veto the bill.[261]
The program was rumored vis-à-vis leaks made by anonymous government
officials on July 23, to be an assassinations program,[262][263] but
this remains unconfirmed. "The whole committee was stunned....I think
this is as serious as it gets," stated Anna Eshoo, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, U.S. House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
Allegations by Director Panetta indicate that details of a secret
counterterrorism program were withheld from Congress under orders from
former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. This prompted Senator
Feinstein and Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee to insist that no one should go outside the law.[264] "The
agency hasn't discussed publicly the nature of the effort, which
remains classified," said agency spokesman Paul Gimigliano.[265]
The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal reported, citing former intelligence officials
familiar with the matter, that the program was an attempt to carry out
a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al-Qaeda
operatives.[266]
Intelligence Committee investigation
On July 17, 2009, the House Intelligence Committee said it was
launching a formal investigation into the secret program.[267]
Representative
Silvestre ReyesSilvestre Reyes announced the probe will look into
"whether there was any past decision or direction to withhold
information from the committee".

"Is giving your kid a test in school an inhibition on his free
learning?" Holt said. "Sure, there are some people who are happy to
let intelligence agencies go about their business unexamined. But I
think most people when they think about it will say that you will get
better intelligence if the intelligence agencies don't operate in an
unexamined fashion."

Congresswoman
Jan SchakowskyJan Schakowsky (D, IL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations, who called for the investigation, stated
that the investigation was intended to address CIA failures to inform
Congress fully or accurately about four issues: C.I.A. involvement in
the downing of a missionary plane mistaken for a narcotics flight in
Peru in 2001, and two "matters that remain classified", as well as the
rumored-assassinations question. In addition, the inquiry is likely to
look at the Bush administration's program of eavesdropping without
warrants and its detention and interrogation program.[269] U.S.
Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair testified before the House
Intelligence Committee on February 3, 2010, that the U.S. intelligence
community is prepared to kill U.S. citizens if they threaten other
Americans or the United States.[270] The American Civil Liberties
Union has said this policy is "particularly troubling" because U.S.
citizens "retain their constitutional right to due process even when
abroad." The ACLU also "expressed serious concern about the lack of
public information about the policy and the potential for abuse of
unchecked executive power."[271]
Improper search of computers used by Senate investigators
In July 2014 CIA Director
John O. BrennanJohn O. Brennan had to apologize to
lawmakers because five CIA employees (two lawyers and three computer
specialists) had surreptitiously searched Senate Intelligence
Committee files and reviewed some committee staff members' e-mail on
computers that were supposed to be exclusively for congressional
investigators. Brennan ordered the creation of an internal personnel
board, led by former senator Evan Bayh, to review the agency
employees' conduct and determine "potential disciplinary
measures."[272] However, according to some reports, Brennan didn't
apologize for spying or doing anything wrong at all, even though his
agency had been improperly accessing computers of the Senate Select
Intelligence Committee (SSCI) and then, in the words of investigative
reporter Dan Froomkin, "speaking a lie". This accusation was based on
the CIA Director's earlier denials of Senator Dianne Feinstein's
claims that the surreptitious CIA search of the SSCI computers
occurred, was inappropriate, or "violated the separation of powers
principles embodied in the
United StatesUnited States Constitution, including the
Speech and Debate clause" or other laws.[273][274][275]
Resignation of officials and agents who would not work for Donald
Trump
In February 2017, reports emerged that key experts within the CIA were
resigning because they would not work for U.S. President Donald
Trump.[276] The
Middle East Eye reported that two agents, Americans,
who operated spy-rings within ISIS had resigned, because they did not
want to see the contacts who worked for them sacrificed due to
incompetence and anti-Muslim prejudice from within Trump's inner
circle. Edward Price, a CIA official since 2006, stirred controversy
when he published an op-ed in The Washington Post, explaining why he
surprised himself by resigning, after he perceived Trump using his
visit to CIA HQ for partisan political
posturing.[277][278][279][280][281][282][283]
WikiLeaks' disclosure of CIA's cyber tools
Main article: Vault 7
In March 2017,
WikiLeaksWikiLeaks has published more than 8,000 documents on
the CIA. The confidential documents, codenamed Vault 7, dated from
2013–2016, included details on the CIA's software capabilities, such
as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs,[284] web browsers
(including
GoogleGoogle Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and
Opera),[285][286][287] and the operating systems of most smartphones
(including Apple's iOS and Google's Android), as well as other
operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.[288]
WikiLeaksWikiLeaks did not name the source, but said that the files had
"circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an
unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided
WikiLeaksWikiLeaks with portions
of the archive."[284]
In a 2017 speech addressing CSIS, CIA Director
Mike PompeoMike Pompeo referred to
WikileaksWikileaks as "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted
by state actors like Russia". He also said: "To give them the space to
crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our
great Constitution stands for. It ends now."[289]
In fiction
Main article: CIA in fiction
Fictional depictions of the CIA exist in many books, films and video
games. Some fiction draws, at least in parts, on actual historical
events, while other works are entirely fictional. The television
series Chuck (2007), was based solely on a man who accidentally sees
secret CIA encryptions and eventually becomes an asset/liabilty, and
later on an agent in the agency. Films include Charlie Wilson's War
(2007), based on the story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA
operative Gust Avrakotos, who supported the Afghan mujahideen, and The
Good Shepherd (2006), a fictional spy film produced and directed by
Robert De NiroRobert De Niro based loosely on the development of
counter-intelligence in the CIA. The fictional character Jack Ryan in
Tom Clancy's books is a CIA analyst.[290] Graham Greene's The Quiet
American is about a CIA agent operating in Southeast Asia.[291]
Fictional depictions of the CIA are also used in video games, such as
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of
Duty: Black Ops.
See also

Abu Omar case
Blue sky memo
CIA's relationship with the
United StatesUnited States Military
Classified information in the United States
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
George Bush Center for Intelligence
Intellipedia
Kryptos
National Intelligence Board
Operation Peter Pan
Project MKUltra
Reagan Doctrine
Office of Strategic Services
Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations
U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals
United StatesUnited States and state-sponsored terrorism
United StatesUnited States Department of Homeland Security
United StatesUnited States Intelligence Community
The World Factbook, published by the CIA

Immerman, Richard H. (1982). The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy
of Intervention. University of Texas Press.
ISBN 978-0-292-71083-2.
Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York:
Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51445-X. OCLC 82367780.

Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse
CounterintelligenceCounterintelligence Field Activity
Military Information Division
Military Intelligence Division
Military Intelligence Service
Office of Strategic Services
Office of
SpecialSpecial Plans
Strategic Support Branch